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Poster:	Conjecture	Date:	May 18, 2017 2:07am
Forum:	universallibrary	Subject:	The Academic Archive

The Internet Archive should have an Academic Archive Collection because we all benefit from the discoveries of others. The alternatives cost upwards of several hundred thousand dollars. Due to how these databases are monetized their primary audience can not afford most of them and they are selling content that for the most part they get for free. Only those willing to put themselves into debt for the rest of their life can afford access to this knowledge that is being hoarded as if it were a sacred treasure. The only alternative to these databases at the present time is attempting to find that one obscure directory in a given university server. The Library of Alexandria revolutionized Greek society by implementing the first sort of open science model. Archimedes was the Ancient Greek mathematician who was the first on record for the invention calculus. Many believe math and the universe have a direct correlation, such that any advancements in the study of the universe, science, help advances in the study of math. It took nearly two thousand years for the rediscovery of calculus and when it happened, several people all discovered it at once. It only stands to reason that if more people had easy access to this knowledge that we could innovate on an order of magnitude faster since several people would not have to work on a problem that was already solved. Nothing has gone more to benefit society than the opening of science as it reduced the rediscovery and duplication of work. In the old days, the opening of science meant publishing important articles in journals which was not a problem when only the elite could afford higher education because they had plenty of spare cash they could throw around. Now many are self educating using free resources like Khan Academy, so that anyone who is determined enough can achieve a higher education; however, it’s not even remotely easy when one wants to learn something that is not part of a curated list of content. The old way of doing open science worked great a couple hundred years ago, however, obeying an old set of limitations is no way to move forward. When the old way was created, there was no internet or easy means for the distribution and propagation of content like there is now. The Internet Archive is already subject to services similar to Khan Academy in its education section. It will not be complete until formally published works could be easily added and searched in aggregate to make more than basic research easier. If The Internet Archive was willing to be host such a service, it would be a great value to society so people would not have to go an over priced institution in order to acquire the education they seek.
This post was modified by Conjecture on 2017-05-18 04:33:04
This post was modified by Conjecture on 2017-05-18 09:07:14